Retired admiral joins nearly 200 other retired senior leaders who are endorsing Biden.
Trump's policies have hurt America's standing in the world, Zukunft said, citing the president's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord without an alternative solution. | Patrick Kelley/ Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard
President Donald Trump's former four-star head of the Coast Guard is speaking out on his decision to endorse Joe Biden, saying it's due to an "insurgency" on Americans' constitutional rights that has occurred on the commander in chief's watch.
Retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who stepped down as commandant of the Coast Guard in June 2018, is one of almost 500 former national security leaders who signed an open letter released Thursday questioning Trump's fitness for command.
Zukunft joined recently retired Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who was the second-highest ranking officer in the military as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until August 2019, in signing the letter.
The retired four-star officers are two of nearly 200 other retired generals and admirals who threw their support behind the former vice president. The group, which calls itself the National Security Leaders for Biden, also includes former defense secretaries, ambassadors, and a number of high-profile Republicans.
"We love our country. Unfortunately, we also fear for it,” the open letter said. "The COVID-19 pandemic has proven America needs principled, wise, and responsible leadership. America needs a president who understands, as President Harry S. Truman said, that ‘the buck stops here.’”
Other signatories included two Obama defense secretaries, Ash Carter and Chuck Hagel, as well as Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration.
Asked reaction to the letter during Thursday's White House briefing, spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said Trump's record "speaks for itself."
"Our military men and women, our veterans love this president for a very distinct reason. Under Obama-Biden, sequestration really gutted our military. You had the Navy at its smallest point ever, and the other military branches were absolutely gutted," she said. "Then you had President Trump who came in and secured a record amount of funding for our military and our Department of Defense and built up our military."
"I can't speak to one person's reasoning," she said when asked about Selva's involvement. "But this president, when you look at what he's done — bringing our troops home and all he's done in aggregate — the rank and file in this military love this president."
It is rare for recently-retired high-ranking military officers to publicly endorse a political candidate or criticize a commander in chief they served. While former top military leaders have endorsed Biden and blasted Trump, Selva is the highest-ranking Trump-era leader to do so. Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, selected both Selva and Zukunft for the jobs, but they served well into the Trump administration.
In the interview, Zukunft described a chaotic administration often thrown off balance by an unpredictable leader. He recalled when Trump announced in a series of tweets in July 2017 that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the military. Zukunft said he called his then-boss, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who would go on to serve as White House chief of staff. Kelly, also caught off guard, worried about breaking faith with the service members who had recently come out as transgender, he said.
"How do you respond to a tweet?" Zukunft said. "The whole decision-making process, it would be a tweet, what's the public reaction, and then things would move along in that direction. At no point was there even any sit-down discussion or deliberation or 'we're thinking about repealing this and gaining your insights.'"
Zukunft interacted with Trump on multiple occasions throughout the first two years of his administration, including quarterly meetings at the Pentagon or the White House, and he quickly learned how to get the president's attention. During a briefing in Key West, Fla., Zukunft recalled watching Trump grow increasingly bored as a Navy admiral and an Air Force general discussed strengthening partnerships.
When it was his turn to brief, Zukunft told the president what he believed he wanted to hear: "'Mr. President, you are the first commander in chief to get off their ass and see what the hell is going on down here."
"Now I don’t talk like that normally," Zukunft told POLITICO. "But as soon as I did, the president was intently hanging on every word I had to say." Trump agreed to provide the Coast Guard the additional ships Zukunft said were needed to police the region.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/24/trump-coast-guard-endorses-biden-420953
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